by Anna Gamboa
“Etched in History” is an enjoyable and educational display of Sanso’s past and present works in print.
MANILA – Primarily known for his colorful and cheerful-looking landscapes in more recent years, very few people with a passing knowledge of Juvenal Sanso’s work may be aware of some of his much older figurative work exploring the grotesque or morbid.
The artist’s prints, revealed in the new exhibit at Fundacion Sanso titled “Etched in History: Sanso and the Art of the Print,” shows a different facet of the multi-talented Spaniard whose family settled in the country just after World War I to start their wrought iron business called Arte Espanol.
2015
etching
11 x 16 3/4 inches
Fundacion Sanso Limited Edition, 2015.
First struck in 1957, edition of 25.
Exhibited in Sanso Retrospective, Metropolitan Museum of Manila, 1974.
Featured in Benesa 1975, Roces 1976 and Paras-Perez 1988 books.
With the guidance of museum director Dida Salta and the thoughtful curatorship of Ricky Francisco, the totality of the artworks on display shows a restless side to the artist, who juxtaposed the discipline of print with the spontaneity of painting (and eventually using some printmaking techniques in his painted work). Having been tutored and encouraged to pursue art initially as a means to help with the family business, Sanso was eventually given his family’s blessing to pursue an artist’s life. Armed with a scholarship, and sheer pluck, he studied printmaking in France (despite having little knowledge of French, which he remedied quickly), delving into the technical process of creating prints with various methods, experimenting with materials, resulting in a wealth of work such as serigraphs, lithographs, etchings and collagraphs.
Works spanning decades of the maestro’s colorful career and exhibiting his prowess at printmaking show an early fascination with textures that has been refined over the years; a mastery of line that can be playful, grim, or imaginative in its application. If you’re lucky to undertake a tour with the curator (Francisco), you’ll enjoy hearing amusing tidbits that were related to the curator from the artist himself, like how a print started out as a lobster, but eventually became the veil or manton of a woman—or the curator’s personal views on certain artworks, such as the rejected print put on display (which will never be sold).
Art-loving introverts will love going to the museum in the mornings on weekdays when there are less visitors, and you seemingly have the whole place to yourself admiring the rare prints and even rarer copper plates. View in an alcove of early work what seems like a grotesque composition of heads in agony, while not too far off, a print of a bouquet of flowers with the same composition can easily be seen. Admire one of Sanso’s large floral/landscape paintings looming above an upper floor as you stand before a mosaic version created by Lisa Zayco.
Some special prints were re-struck and arranged as a tribute to other printmakers, such as the varied print renderings that call to mind Andy Warhol. While selected prints will be auctioned off at the end of the exhibit, another set of the exclusive and limited re-struck prints (done under the supervision of master printmaker Pandy Aviado) are available at an affordable rate at the museum’s office. Sales from both activities are meant to be part of the fundraiser for the museum’s activities, and workshops open to the public will be scheduled in cooperation with the Printmakers Association of the Philippines and Mr. Aviado.
As a retrospective, it functions as a vibrant reminder of how much Sanso has achieved as an artist, the risks/sacrifices he undertook, and how human he can be like anyone else, creatively channeling his moods to produce honest art in its varied forms: grotesque, whimsical, serious or thoughtful—but always beautiful, in its own way, reflecting the hand of its maker.
“Etched in History: Sanso and the Art of the Print” runs until October 30, 2015. The museum is located on V. Cruz St. in San Juan, and is open to the public Mondays to Saturdays, 10am to 5pm. For inquiries please call 952 1568, text 0998 572 3360 or email fundacionsanso@gmail.com.
